Spring NRO, 5/17/2024-5/19/2024
Cavers: Eugeniya, Kat, Vera, Syd, George, Jayna, Pari, Devin, Lulu, Rihn, Josh, Damian, Lukas
By: Eugeniya, Rihn and Kat
This year's NRO we had a lot of MIT cavers attend! NRO is a gathering of cavers in the northeast where people come for the weekend and camp and various experienced people run trips. It's a lot of fun since you get to hang out with people and also go to caves, and even choose which caves you go to and with whom each day!
Arriving at the campsite, we discovered that there were a number of campsites. Of course, instead being reasonable and claiming multiple campsites, we decided to pack all 13 of us into the same campsite. After a little tent and car tesselating, we successfully were arranged in our campsite, with even some space around the firepit. In the evenings, we were able to sit around the fire, cook questionable dinners, and make some smores. We also had a handful of older cruft come visit us and hang out, and make smores with us. It was very nice to have them appear at our campsite!
On Friday night we were able to sign up for caves on Saturday, and on Saturday for Sunday. Many of us went to different caves on both days including Marshalls, Bensons, Merlins, Knox, Ella Armstrong, Selleck's Karst Preserve and Onesquathaw.
Merlin's Cave
By Eugeniya and Rihn
On Saturday, we went to Merlins with Josh and Damian, and two others from RPI (kinda crazy they're so close to caves). None of us had been to this cave before, since you need a steward to take you there. This is one of my favourite caves I've been to in the northeast. It involved both crawling and climbing (with water falling on you!) and a traverse that needed vert gear.
We started by hiking to Merlins cave, following a nice forest trail. The tripleaders knew a lot about the preserve and the history of the cave, as he was one of the people who excavated it. At the entrance, we put on wetsuits (for those of us wearing wetsuits). Then we entered the cave.
The entrance was a narrow, tubular passage and we were advised to go in feet first. This resulted in us taking turns slithering in through this muddy relatively tight slightly downhill passage. We even managed to avoid kicking anyone in the face! Then this was followed by some amount of crawling, including some side crawling through vertical squeezes. Then the cave opened out, to a pretty set of domes and waterfalls.
The cave became wet with a river running through it. We then had some downclimbs through falling water. While they were sometimes not all that straightforward, and the water was rather cold, it was very fun to climb through the falling water, and navigate the downclimb while also trying to maximally avoid the centre of the climb where there was actively water falling. During these downclimbs, we also passed packs, and the tripleader talked to us about what one should pack with them and made comments about the weight of our packs. After a bit more navigating of the climb (including another waterfall downclimb and a traverse that involved rope), we got the the “big room” where Josh revealed one of the things that made his pack heavy – a light up orb that Rihn and he had made as part of pyrofox. We got to sit around and eat lunch in this very large open space, with ceiling heights as large as 38 feet, using this rainbow orb as illumination. After this we broke into smaller groups and explored the big room. It had lots of pretty flowstone and other formations, some of which were caution taped off to make sure that they would not be disturbed. After this, it was time to head back. We backtracked, doing the traverse and crawling and climbing across a large drop while attached to rope and climbing back up the downclimbs.
Some of us went to an offshoot if you were to down climb instead of traverse, which had pretty red formations. While on the way down we'd done a better job avoiding the water, here we got far more wet. Several of us stood in the fall of the dome and waterfall to try and clean off the mud from our outer layers. It was like a really cold shower! Climbing up a cold waterfall was a bit more difficult than climbing down it, as you try to avoid the spray of water into your eyes, but we all managed. Eventually we were out of the cave and hiking back to the car, and eventually returned to the campsite all hungry for dinner.
Signs of life:
cave worm!!
little seedlings washed in
Benson's Cave
By Kat
On Saturday, George, Syd, and I went to Benson's Cave with an NRO tripleader (the guy who designed the NRO tshirts this year!) and two other cavers. We walked around a bit in the woods until we found the right pit, and then set up a rope to rappel 65ft in. At the bottom was a narrow passage going two directions, and unfortunately we all got turned around and confused during the rappel down and didn't know which way to go. We started out going the wrong way until the passage got too tight to squeeze through. After that we turned around and explored the rest of the cave.
One of the first things we passed while going the correct direction were some cool looking pillars. The cave was mostly dry walking with little bits of crawling until we hit a section labeled "Ladies Limit" on the wall in black carbide. Here we had to crawl through the water, but we were lucky that the water level was pretty low (other trips have come here and had to turn around when the whole passage is filled with water). We took turns going quickly through the water so we wouldn't get cold.
The next big room we saw was the Junction room. The main passage continued along the stream in the same direction it had been going, but there was also a climb up a side passage. Everyone but George left their packs behind (yay George for being the only prepared one!) and we followed the side passage. Eventually it got smaller and crawly, and we saw a very cute yellow salamander at one of the intersections! Finally, after several hundred feet of army crawling in water, the passage opened up again and we saw the "No Tresspassing" sign which marks then edge of Benson's Cave and start Secret Caverns (a nearby commercial cave). We didn't want to break the law, so we stopped there and headed back to the Junction Room from there.
Once we got back to the Junction Room we ate snacks and headed to the end of the cave, which was quite close and had easy walking passage. We looked at the waterfall at the end of the cave and saw the area where they are digging out more cave. We didn't stay here long because we were getting cold.
On the way out we had a photoshoot by the pillars near the entrance, and then ascended as fast as possible to get out into the warm sun again. Overall, we had a lovely time!
Ella Armstrong
By Eugeniya and Rihn
On Sunday, Eugeniya went to Ella Armstrong with Pari, Jayna, Devin and Damian. We were all driving back to MIT together, so going on a trip was very convenient since it simplified all of the return logistics. Ella Armstrong began with a series of vertical squeezes. It was fun navigating the steps down while in a vertical squeeze, although we did lose a trip member here, who wasn't comfortable with the squeezes. Then we had a relatively open space where we encountered a rappel. Once down we all found a ledge we could all, questionably, fit on, and promptly, as we had when camping, all squeezed into the ledge. From the bottom of the rappel there was a loop of passage to the left which was a tubular squeeze. We went on a little loop around, enjoying navigating the passages and folding our bodies to fit through the passages. To the right, there was a nice canyon passage with a dome. This cave was rather small, but fun to visit and explore!
Onesquethaw
By Kat
My Sunday caving trip was going to Onesquethaw with George, Syd, and Lukas. It's a nice (and long! about 1 mile) horizontal cave close to Clarksville. We started a little late in the morning because our tripleaders were participating in the NRO meeting (arguing about hot tubs and breakfast for an hour). Our group was about 12 people including two tripleaders. Some people had never been caving before and some were very experienced.
The start of Onesquethaw is tall and walkable passage. Eventually we hit the first crawling section, but it was not too bad and we could do it on just hands and knees instead of army crawling. The sketchiest part here was a climb over a little canyon in the cave (about a 15ft drop), but we took turns to each other our packs so we all made it through without problem.
Next, there was a little bit of a wet section where we went down into a passage that was under the one we were just in. At the end of this passage is the otter slide: a muddy slope about 15ft long. The slope kind of sucked to climb up and we had to use the ceiling of the cave as handholds because it was so slick. The part of the cave also smelled a little bit like cows, but the tripleaders told us the cow smell actually gets much worse later in the summer when the cave dries out more.
After the otter slide, the cave actually opens up again and we went through some walking passage to the Spider Room. There were no spiders in the Spider Room, but on the map the passages coming out of it look a little bit like spider webs. There is a hidden bolt in the spider room wall that we unsuccessfully searched for while hanging out there. From the Spider Room onward the cave was mostly crawling and low walking. The end of the cave is a little uneventful, as it just keeping going lower until it fills with water and becomes unpassable. We all took a look at the water at the end, and then headed back.
Our group split up between the two tripleaders on the way back, and we were speedy in the first group. The otter slide was VERY fun to go down! Much more fun than going up. We also went into a secret side passage that we had skipped on the way in. We climbed up a large log (possibly an old telephone pole) and followed a low but walkable passage for several hundred feet. It went in the direction of the parking lot, but didn't reach the surface and there was not much in it.
We met up with the rest of our group outside the cave and ate chocolate :)